Blog about the intersection of libraries, law, feminism, and diversity

9/6 #critlib: Public-Academic Library Collabs

I’m going to be moderating a pretty impromptu #critlib chat for Sept. 6 at 9pm EST. The topic is collaboration between public and academic libraries. As someone who started her library career in a public library and now works in an academic library, I’m always on the lookout for ways that public and academic libraries can come together. Specifically, I’m interested in the ways that academic libraries, with all their resources atop their ivory towers, can help support the work being done by the public libraries in their areas.

One of my former library jobs was in a community college setting where one of our system libraries was also the community library: West St. Petersburg Community Library @ St. Petersburg College. So that’s kind of what has me started thinking along these lines, but I’d love to hear about more potential and actual collaborations happening out there.

This is going to be a very informal chat—well, they’re all informal, but this one will be even more so. I’m soliciting questions; feel free to drop them in the comments below or send them my way on Twitter.

Here are some of the questions I’ve gotten so far (thanks, all!):

How can academic libraries support public libraries with research? (from @janeschmidt)

How can academic libraries be more aware of and help out with public library advocacy? (from @chiuchiutrain)

How can big research university libraries share with community colleges as well as public libraries? (from @sunnykins)